Conventional microcontroller or microprocessor systems, e.g., systems that are used in the automotive field, frequently comprise one or a plurality of signal converters, e.g., respective analog-to-digital converters.
By means of an analog-to-digital converter, an analog input signal, e.g., a corresponding measurement voltage may be converted to a digital numerical value that is “understandable” for the corresponding microcontroller or microprocessor. Analog-to-digital converters may operate in accordance with a plurality of different converting methods, e.g., the parallel method, or the successive approximation method, etc. In some cases, analog-to-digital converters are operated as fast as possible, so that a respective digital numerical output value is available as soon as possible.
In addition to one or several of the above analog-to-digital converters, conventional microcontroller or microprocessor systems often comprise one or several over-voltage-detectors. Such detectors, e.g., may include a comparator to detect whether an analog input voltage exceeds a first predetermined value, in which case, e.g., an alarm signal is generated. The predetermined value e.g. may be stored in digital form in a respective register, and a respective digital-to-analog converter (DAC) may be used to convert the respective digital numerical value into an analog signal to be compared by the above comparator to the input voltage.
However, when a microcontroller or microprocessor system includes both one or several over-voltage-detectors, and one or several analog-to-digital converters, in total, a relatively high number of elements (comparators, DACs, etc.) to build these devices may be used.